The Blinders of Wokeness

According to RT News, the Bank of America has launched a mind laundering program aimed at getting its employees to be "woke at work."

According to the article B of A is peddling white guilt urging its niebelungen to "decolonise” their minds," and to acknowledge that that white people “regardless of one’s socioeconomic class background or other disadvantages” are “living a life with white-skin privileges.”

RT news chastises B of A and U.S. corporations in general for "assuming the role of moral guardians" and forcing its (white) emplyees to "confess [ ] their sin of being white."

But RT misses the point. If B of A were REALLY "woke" they would reduce their credit card interest from 17 and 26% compounded to 7% simple. After all, minorities tend to rely on credit cards to make ends meet while the economically privileged can cash in on their real estate equity at 1.6%. But OhMyGod! Kill the cash-cow of credit card gouging?

SHRIEKS HEARD ON THE 66th FLOOR

This shows what wokeness is really about whether it comes from "401(k) Liberals" or Institutions of Usury and Economic Exploitation.

In fact B of A's Woke Manual puts it explicitly: poor whites are living "white-skin privileges." Really? Fucking really? You wonder why privileged white trash vote for Trump?

Corporations will be what they always have been; but it's time "liberals" flushed their minds of all the diversionary bullshit they spew.

Speaking Truth to Value Service

It seems to me that if one truly "values the service" of our troops, he could begin by speaking the truth of the wars to which they were deployed.

1. ALL soldiers (and I mean ALL) serve with "honor and courage" and soldiers themselves, regardless of uniform, understand this. The reason is simple: death is the same for everyone (in case people hadn't noticed). Put another way, the quality of service and sacrifice, has little to do with the cause to which it is hitched.

2. By the same token, men and women who are willing to subject themselves to the hardships of military discipline and war deserve our respect, without slavish fawning, in the same way that we should acknowledge the effort and persistence of anyone in any endeavour. Put another way, honouring military service is not the same as making a cult out of militarism -- a distinction which despots and political hucksters are eager to blur.

3. But if we value servicemen's sacrifice, it follows that we value the life they put upon the altar; and, if we value their lives, we will be solicitous that it is not sacrificed in vain or vainglorious adventures. This is where the subtle cheat worms its way into the equation.

This happens when the war to which soldiers were deployed rides coat-tails on their valor or sacrifice. "They were brave, therefore the war was worth it" is a false syllogism. It is a syllogism which political hucksters peddle because it allows them to embark on more useless ventures without public scrutiny. Wars become good because the valor they consume is good.

The war in Afghanistan did not "protect us from terrorism" for one second because the Taliban had nothing to do with terrorism against the United States. They were not responsible for 9/11. They were not responsible for blowing up boats in the Persian Gulf. If they were responsible for anything it was for ensnaring the Russians -- with American help -- in a ten year war, which wasted the courage and honour of THOSE soldiers.

It is true that Al Qaeda used hide-outs in Afghanistan for training purposes. When the U.S. "demanded" that the Taliban turn Bin Laden over, they replied that they were unable to do do so. Looking for an excuse, the Bush administration decided to interpret that as "assisting" terrorism. Uh huh. And how long did it take the "mightiest nation on earth" to smoke out Bin Laden? Uh... maybe 10 years and even then he was ultimately found in Pakistan (which we didn't invade by the way.) This war was a vile cheat from the start and it should be called out for what it was. It protected us from nothing.

I remember the yeehaw hoopla when we invaded this land of endless rocks. In my town, the yahoos spent near a week peeling rubber up and down the streets waving flags from their pickups and belloiwng: A'MURRRRKAAAAA!!!! The town was draped from end to end with American flags. The supermarket posted pictures of the young men who were in the military or who had just signed up. "WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!!!." I kept my mouth shut.

Three years later...on a bright late morning... when the hysteria had long since died down, I saw one of those young men hobbling down a quiet and deserted Main Street, without his left leg. The only support he had were his crutches.

The Farce of America's Noble Intentions

As usual the New York Slime is bullshitting its readers...

The "fall" of Afghanistan to the Taliban, saith the Slime is "unutterably tragic."  Well now... if it is "unutterable" the editorial might as well have ended there. 

But uttering on the Slime tell us that this denouement is tragic "because the American dream of being the 'indispensable nation' in shaping the world where the values of civil rights, women's empowerment and religious tolerance rule proved to be just that: a dream."

Oh sing sorrow of sorrows...America, the Noble and Tragic, stalking the world for the love of women's empowerment. If, as Clemenceau said, Wilson talked like Jesus Christ but acted like Lloyd George, the New York Slime tries to talk like Wilson but ends up sounding like an imbecile. 

The Slime then goes on to blabber about confidential reports on "Lessons Learned."  Oh puleeze.  Let us put aside the "graveyard of empires." Let us put aside even the lessons learned from Vietnam.  The Carter Administration understood very well that Afghanistan was a quagmire and for that very reason connived to induce the Russians to get sucked into an unwinnable war.  

Zbigniew Brzezinski was quite open about this. In a 1997 interview, he spoke of “drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap.” He claims: “The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.’"

Uh huh.

So then... why did we jump into the quagmire once the Soviets extricated their asses (to the tune of 50,000 killed)?  Because beginning in 1993, with Cheney's "Defense Planning Guide,"  the Neoscum in the administration evolved a policy of global "POWER PROJECTION."

The "goal" of U.S. policy was simply to stalk the world "projecting power"...not for any ulterior purpose but for its own sake to deter "potential rivals."  Got that?  Not actual rivals but "potential" ones.  This is the policy of a bully, pure and simple.  This later got distilled in the P.N.A.C's notorious paper of 9/2000 ("Rebuilding America's Defenses") which a year later got massaged into Bush's official statement on U.S. policy. 

One can guess who funded these neocon initiatives.

The Slime is such a vile work of distractions and false consciousness.  "How [the war]" it saith, "evolved into a two-decade nation-building project... is a story of mission creep and hubris but also of the enduring American faith in the values of freedom and democracy."   

No it wasn't.  It was a story of "full spectrum dominance" (aka bullying) for profit that used "smoking out" Osama bin Laden as a smokescreen for endless wars around the world.  I am not callous to anyone's individual suffering and grief but, geopoliticaly speaking,  two and half thousand military dead is a pittance in the horrible scale of warfare.  However, the three trillions wasted on "systems and hardware" that might have been spent on alleviating social distress and infrastructural decay was not a pittance.  That the nation's treasure was wasted on this escapade was not a tragedy but a disgusting crime. 

Not a single one of the vermin who authored this wastage will swing from the gallows.  

Disappointment?

 Quoth the New York Slime

"The muted American response on Sunday showed in no uncertain terms that America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is over. "

Could this result be called a disappointment?  To be disappointed presupposes that one had an appointment, or as we would say, contrary expectation from the start.    We did?  

Woodchip Gazette

This war is nothing that can be won with a handful of battles. On the contrary, it presupposes a continuous engagement. And who is the enemy? All Arabs? No.... not all....

To declare war against an unseen, amorphous, invisible enemy who is given no option other than implacable hate, is a gross stupidity which can only be explained by this country’s overweening arrogance and self-righteousness. For that pride the Devil will have to be paid.

 The Devil's Bill (September 12, 2001.)

Intoxicated with self-righteousness and fired with bellicosity we are rushing headlong forward without the least circumspection or doubt. This is the surest way to disaster.

Our own misdeeds bring misfortune upon us and lead us to rush headlong into disaster. It may be that in this imperfect world we must do imperfect things; but if we do not pause beforehand to examine ourselves honestly and humbly we become mere agents of Fury which like a fire is only interested in consuming what it burns.

    Deus lo vult  (September 19, 2001.)

The madness began in earnest this October 7th when we invaded Afghanistan to “smoke out” Alkaydah and teach them ragheads not to mess with Uhmurkans!! The yahoos in my town took to peeling rubber in their flag-bedecked picks-ups as they leaned on their horns and screamed “yeeeehaw!!” “kickassssss!” and “Muuuuuuuuuurrrkaaa!” at the top their lungs. The town elders hung banners that read “America Land of the Free” even as Congress was voting away our liberties.

The yeeehawing and honking continued for three days. Old Glory became ubiquitous - hanging from every house and store; plastered on bumpers, on posts, and windows. The town was intoxicated with jingoistic, testosteronal self-love. Thump! thump! thump! thump!   Whom the gods would destroy they first make A’mukans.

    Whom the Gods would Destroy ( October 31, 2001)

This "war" will be like smashing a bead of mercury with a hammer.

Translating Government Non-Speak  (October 11, 2001) -  

 
Now go back and read whatever bullshit the MSM was spewing.

We have spent close to three trillion dollars shooting shepherds, blasting mud huts and bombing rocks.  (Oh yes, and fattening the Swiss bank accounts of our satraps.)  And the surprising result?   Think on what social goods that money could have instead been spent.

I hardly ever criticise enlisted men, NCO's or field-grade officers.  Their's was not to reason why.  But priests, pundits and politicians are another matter.  The ilk that run this Saturnian country are either the most colossally stupid, drooling morons imaginable or they are the most disgustingly venal, morally putrid, hypocrites.  Take your pick but stop making excuses for this place.